Comedy Review: Night of Gospel Laughs -- a Smash!
July 11, 2012By Tiffani Knowles

The third annual "Night of Gospel Laughs," produced by Global Christian Event Network on Saturday, June 30, 2012, boasted not just laughs but a genuine cultural exchange between international comedians and an international audience.


The event took place at Bishop Loughlin School Auditorium at 357 Clermont Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.


Although the event was behind time and started after 7 p.m., it moved quickly into gear with comic routines by Nigerian comedian Glory Child who joshed about his very religious Nigerian family.


"Every time my father speaks in tongues, he sounds like he's passing gas," said Glory Child, who proceeded to mimic his dad's tongues. "Rapppppaaaadddddaaaapppeerrraddddaaaaaa."


While 2012 GCEN International Gospel Comedian Mike Goodhope and TNI Radio personality Femi Korede may have pulled a few chuckles out of the audience, the comedians who truly forced some belly-busting laughs out of the audience were comedians Chris Williams, Seyi Brown and NaMo.


Williams, a native of Bronx, NY, is wellknown for his roles in the movies State Property and Paper Soldiers that has been aired on BET multiple times.In December 2001, Williams gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and now uses his comedic talent for ministry.


His comedy, although clean, wouldn't just be characterized as Christian comedy. In fact, Williams would be right at home at a New York City comedy club with his incessant teasing of the audience (one attendee arrived late with a pizza box in tow and become the butt of his first joke) and his breaking into spontaneous song and dance while he employed a unique style of interweaving the dialects of the Latin and Caribbean communities present in New York.


"As soon as a Trinidadian sees you, they start insulting you," Williams said. "When I go to see my family around the holidays and my aunt answers the door, she'll immediately say something like, "Oh Gosh! Chris, look how yuh gain so much weight. Come here, all yuh, look how Chris get so fat and huge and disgusting."


The audience roared with laughter as many event goers from the Caribbean identified with that very same experience.


NaMo, a Nigerian comedian who also served as event MC for the first half of the show, zeroed in on the heavy Nigerian population in attendance.


He spoke quite a bit about immigration issues, stating he was dumbfounded as to why undocumented immigrants would stage demonstrations about their rights or lack thereof.


"You would never see an African there," he said. "Because we would be the ones they would pick from out of the crowd and cart away."


He also warned audiences not to video tape him for fear that the news reaches his mother back in Nigeria whom would have a fit if she knew that he was in America making a living as a comedian.


Seyi Brown served as the headliner and event MC for the second half of the program.


Brown was born to a family of ministers in Lagos, Nigeria. He was the host of Style Quest and the Lagos Lottery TV show. He also featured in a TV series called Doctor's Quarters and has achieved commercial success through his modeling exploits. He is currently the host of Africa Laughs on the Africa channel.


He didn't let the audience breathe for a second as he delivered comedic routine after comedic routine.


He mocked his Nigerian mom who he claimed used to spank him in advance for the wrong he had yet to commit, who would spank him if she saw another child behaving disrespectfully for the purpose of instilling fear within him so he would know never to cross her that way and who would spank and scold simultaneously.


He demonstrated his mom using her hand to punctuate every word: "Don't....you....ever...speak....to...me...that....way...again."


Brown's favorite bit of the night was to mimic those with a stutter. He floored audiences as he seemed to authentically represent the speech impediment without much effort at all.


Additional music and entertainment was provided by Dj Dr. D Of WHCR 90.3 Fm, DMSquared, Nigerian International Recording Artist, as well as a spoken word artist and dance group.


GCEN is a unique social enterprise and event marketing organization that facilitates and hosts events which appeals to all classes of people within different age groups. Based in the metro New York area with global reach, GCEN caters primarily to the Christian communities through hosting of ethical and life changing events.





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